It was probably inevitable that after Fallen, their major-label debut, propelled Evanescence to sales of nearly 14 million albums worldwide, that a series of other bands would emerge cut from essentially the same template of female-fronted metallic power pop combining spiritual lyrics with gothic imagery.
The inherent drama in Evanescence’s music which derives from their marriage of rock, goth and classical is also clearly apparent in the music made by Flyleaf, where dual guitars trade orchestral riffs that seesaw from soaring to searing and singer Lacey’s vocals build into beauty from pain. Their second album, Memento Mori, links together 13 tracks to form a sort of parable:
"Every track is like another chapter of the story. In my head it feels like a movie. The story becomes a parable for important life lessons we’ve learned over the years. After coming through these life and death experiences, we have learned to be more grateful and purposeful with the time we are given. We want to pass the torch at the end during ‘Arise.’ Perhaps someone will come away from the story and be more grateful and purposeful with their own life and the world will change for the better."
Emo band Paramore have more of a pop-punk sound but have increasingly taken their imagery into similar territory to Evanescence and Flyleaf. Lead singer, Hayley Williams, has said of the songs on their most recent album:
"I was like, 'This isn't a feel-good song, because I'm writing about something I'm going through right now, and it's still painful.' And I confused that with actually not liking the songs, when actually I was prouder of them than I've ever been before. They're heavier emotions for me... I'm still going through some of this stuff, and these songs are really healing to me."
Paramore decided to name the record brand new eyes because of the allusion to seeing things from a whole new perspective, "Just trying to let go of whatever we might have struggled with the past and just see each other in a new way," explained Williams.
The newest band in this vein take us right back to the beginning. We Are The Fallen is comprised of the original members of multi-platinum trailblazing band Evanescence, guitarists Ben Moody and John LeCompt along with drummer Rocky Gray, with enigmatic American Idol finalist Carly Smithson powering the vocal reins of the new group. Respected touring and studio bassist Marty O’Brien (Disturbed and Static-X, among others) rounds out the iconic five-some.
The energetic creative engine behind the launch of Evanescence, Moody and the other members of We Are The Fallen found a true partner in Smithson, who always envisioned a band environment as her dream move following Idol. Ben Moody who co-founded the band, was a principal writer of the 15-million selling debut, Fallen, departed Evanescence in 2003. Since that time, he has enjoyed a prolific career as a producer and songwriter. When asked about the formation of We Are The Fallen, he shared, “I am finally home.” Singer Smithson added, “As an artist I have never been happer. Creatively, musically visually, and on a comedic level we are united and together on the same page. We are a family.”
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We Are The Fallen - Bury Me Alive.
Saturday, 8 May 2010
How Barking & Dagenham saw off the BNP
Well justified celebrations here from Hope not hate:
"It's official: the BNP suffered a humiliating defeat in yesterday's election.Not only did the BNP fail to elect Nick Griffin or Simon Darby to Parliament, they also failed to take any council seats in Barking & Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent. The BNP is divided and defeated - and it's all thanks to you ... this ... victory ... belongs to all of us who stood for hope, not hate."
Billy Bragg explains how Barking and Dagenham saw off the BNP here:
"This is a huge victory for the antifascist movement. Hundreds of activists have made the trip up the District Line to Barking and Dagenham in the past few weeks. Hope Not Hate, a non-partisan organisation led by Searchlight magazine and supported by trade unions, organised a forensic campaign that identified and then got out the anti-BNP vote.
Almost 1,000 volunteers came through the doors of the Hope Not Hate HQ, distributing 130,000 leaflets aimed at pensioners, black and Asian voters, young voters, women voters and male voters who had been identified as opposing the BNP. The results of this massive effort were visible when Barking's Labour MP, Margaret Hodge, defied all the night's trends and the laws of gravity by increasing her majority.
The people of Barking and Dagenham have resoundingly rejected the fascism of the BNP. Now the Labour party needs to begin to address the genuine concerns of the local population, white and black, about jobs, housing, education and health care. It was these issues – and the pressure put on them by incomers looking for the cheapest housing in London – that allowed the BNP to gain a foothold in the borough."
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Switchfoot - Mess Of Me.
"It's official: the BNP suffered a humiliating defeat in yesterday's election.Not only did the BNP fail to elect Nick Griffin or Simon Darby to Parliament, they also failed to take any council seats in Barking & Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent. The BNP is divided and defeated - and it's all thanks to you ... this ... victory ... belongs to all of us who stood for hope, not hate."
Billy Bragg explains how Barking and Dagenham saw off the BNP here:
"This is a huge victory for the antifascist movement. Hundreds of activists have made the trip up the District Line to Barking and Dagenham in the past few weeks. Hope Not Hate, a non-partisan organisation led by Searchlight magazine and supported by trade unions, organised a forensic campaign that identified and then got out the anti-BNP vote.
Almost 1,000 volunteers came through the doors of the Hope Not Hate HQ, distributing 130,000 leaflets aimed at pensioners, black and Asian voters, young voters, women voters and male voters who had been identified as opposing the BNP. The results of this massive effort were visible when Barking's Labour MP, Margaret Hodge, defied all the night's trends and the laws of gravity by increasing her majority.
The people of Barking and Dagenham have resoundingly rejected the fascism of the BNP. Now the Labour party needs to begin to address the genuine concerns of the local population, white and black, about jobs, housing, education and health care. It was these issues – and the pressure put on them by incomers looking for the cheapest housing in London – that allowed the BNP to gain a foothold in the borough."
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Switchfoot - Mess Of Me.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Ramblings & Reflections
Those who enjoy blogs which regularly feature photographs will find much to enjoy on Ramblings & Reflections, the sabbatical blog by Morag Finch.
During her sabbatical Morag is spending time reflecting on images and their relationship with spirituality. She particularly wants to focus on the use of photography. To help her focus on this and to try to help link together the various aspects of her time together she has set herself the challenge of taking a photograph a day and reflecting on it. Her hope is that by reflecting regularly some of the threads may begin to tie themselves together in ways that she wasn't expecting. She writes that "It often seems to me that it is the unlikely things which seem to relate better than those which you anticipate."
There are already a number of exceptional images posted on this blog - check out the following: Water; Lindisfarne; Sunlight; Dandelion; Candle; and Reflection.
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Leigh Nash & Jars of Clay - With Every Breath.
During her sabbatical Morag is spending time reflecting on images and their relationship with spirituality. She particularly wants to focus on the use of photography. To help her focus on this and to try to help link together the various aspects of her time together she has set herself the challenge of taking a photograph a day and reflecting on it. Her hope is that by reflecting regularly some of the threads may begin to tie themselves together in ways that she wasn't expecting. She writes that "It often seems to me that it is the unlikely things which seem to relate better than those which you anticipate."
There are already a number of exceptional images posted on this blog - check out the following: Water; Lindisfarne; Sunlight; Dandelion; Candle; and Reflection.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leigh Nash & Jars of Clay - With Every Breath.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Airbrushed from Art History (16)
Australia and Poland are two countries which have seen specific and successful initiatives to reconcile modern art and Christianity. Australia, through the initiation of the Blake Prize for Religious Art and Poland, through the idea of ‘sacrum’ in art.
Revd. Rod Pattenden, Chairperson of the Blake Society writes that:
“The Blake Prize is one of the more prestigious art prizes in Australia. Since 1951 the Blake Society has been awarding a prize for works of art that explore the subject of religious awareness and spirituality. In difference to art prizes that are awarded for distinct subject areas such as landscape or portraiture, the Blake has always invited a much more open, personal and idiosyncratic response, so much so that it has earned the criticism, ire and sometimes applause of critics and the public alike. After all, what is religious art?
First awarded in 1951 it has brought to the attention of the art world new and emerging artist as well as allowing for innovation and experimentation of expression. Senior artists like John Coburn, Eric Smith and Rod Milgate first came to attention through their winning entries for the Prize. In more recent years, the Blake has seen something of a revival of interest with increasing numbers of entries and a diversity of ideas being expressed in the works. Recent winners have included George Gittoes, Hilarie Mais and Rachel Ellis. The search for a visual means of expressing deeply held perceptions and beliefs is rewarded each year in an exhibition that begins its life in Sydney and then travels around Australia.”
Rosemary Crumlin is currently completing a book on the Blake Prize, Within, which covers the period from its beginning in 1950 to 2009; a period which has been of considerable significance in Australia. She writes that “its shifts and shaping have been influenced by perspectives and art movements beyond Australia.”
Pattenden notes that:
“The Prize was the brainchild of Richard Morley, a Jewish businessman, and Michael Scott, a Jesuit educationalist, who believed that such a Prize would provide contemporary works of art for the many new churches and synagogues being built in the post war suburban sprawl. While religious authorities were generally taken aback by the modern flavour of these new investigations, it was the artists who most welcomed the Blake as it allowed them to express more personal subject matter; in short, it rewarded innovation and daring. The Prize was named after the mystic artist and writer William Blake who is celebrated for his creative commitments rather than his adherence to any particular dogma.
Surprise is the more characteristic response to each year’s exhibition rather than a confirmation of any traditional iconography. In the search for fresh contemporary expressions of spirituality artists have continued to extend the envelope of the Blake to encompass a wide diversity of religious expression drawing on major religious traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism, as well as indigenous spirituality. The Blake has fostered this breadth of diversity and celebrated the various rich traditions that make up the landscape of belief in Australia.
More personal responses have also found their way into the Blake’s gamut with explorations of feminism and gender, connections with the natural world and the wider referencing of the political influences of war, ecology and globalisation. There is nothing the Blake doesn’t seem to cover even tolerating parody, irony and humour over against the usually serious face of organised religion. Each year there is much to be annoyed by, seduced by, or simply inspired by. It is a thoroughly ecumenical experience for the eyes!”
In 2002 Crumlin curated a retrospective of the Blake Prize. Her main purpose in the retrospective was to show, through the paintings, how society's views on spirituality had changed over half a century: "Initially, she says, "artists - and the Blake committee - took it for granted that 'religious' meant 'Christian' and that 'Christian' was to be equated with scriptural narratives". Today, artists and judges have a less restricted view of spirituality, encompassing not just other religions such as Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, but alternative faith systems, everything from "New Ageism" to Aboriginality."
Pattenden considers that:
“A Prize for Religious Art reminds us that the arts have a valuable role to play in a society as we explore the place of passion, love, belief and action. Learning to appreciate the diversity of belief allows more opportunity to act together with understanding and compassion. Art allows us to speculate on the mystery of life, while learning to appreciate the deeply held perceptions of people different to us without needing to agree with their ideas. Art has always had a close relationship to religious expression and exploration. It is a medium suited to exploring the many creative paths that people take on their life journey and honouring that diversity.”
The Prize is managed by the Blake Society, which is currently developing a Foundation to ensure the ongoing viability of the Prize. Its membership comes from a diverse range of professions and religious interests. The common goal of the Society is to affirm the ongoing and dynamic contribution of this cultural institution to Australian society and the arts.
By contrast to the positive embrace of the arts and religion that is seen in the Blake Prize, in Poland during the 1980’s, as martial law forced virtually the entire artistic community in Poland to boycott the official exhibition spaces, we see a similar embrace developing in response to this oppression, as the only other places which found widespread approval among independent artistic and intellectual groups were the churches. So, churches became where artistic meetings, shows and exhibitions were held with most significant Polish artists and art figures participating in them, and only a very few veering away from addressing religious themes.
Agnieska Gralinska-Toborek describes the first, and probably the most famous, of these exhibitions, which was organised in 1983 by Janusz Bogucki in the church of God's Mercy in Warsaw, as follows:
“Under the title The Sign of the Cross, it brought together over fifty artists and photographers, as well as actors, musicians, art theorists, and filmmakers, who took part in the meetings, lectures and concerts accompanying the exhibition. Popularising the idea of ‘art returning home’, i.e. coming back to the sacrum, [Janusz] Bogucki managed to convert to it many respected and important artists from the Polish avant-garde. The interior of the Gothic church, ruined during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and in the process of being laboriously rebuilt by the parishioners, played the function of an extraordinary gallery. Without interrupting the construction work, the artists used the space of the church and the vaults, including the elements of its architecture into their arrangements. They had to learn how to co-operate and talk with the parishioners, who felt themselves to be the owners of the place and were not always willing to accept the artists' ideas. It was a good preparation for further exhibitions organised by Bogucki, such as Apocalypse – The Light in the Darkness (1984) and Labyrinth – The Underground Space (1989).”
Janusz Bogucki (1916-1995), was an important Polish critic and art historian, who noted a tendency towards the spiritual in Polish avant-garde art which, in artists such as Jerzy Tchórzewski, Stefan Gierowski and Jerzy Bereś, arose from a need to achieve transcendence and was characterised by a search for the Absolute. The work of these and other artists was, for Bogucki, confirmation of his idea that art should turn to sacrum and he, therefore, invited them to take part in his church-based projects in the early 1980s.
Most significant Polish artists participated in these exhibitions, including the Gruppa artists. It was also in this period that the work of Jerzy Nowosielski revealed its full fascination with icon paintings through the publication of "Wokół ikony" / "Around the Icon" (1985) and later "Mój Chrystus" / "My Christ" (1993). Yet the spiritual expression was not, on the whole, extended into the next decade as, when the political turning-point came in 1989, the general adherence to links with the Church became, for many artists, “a good reason to break with it - and this was particularly true of radical circles - because it was regarded as a restraint not dissimilar to those imposed hitherto by the totalitarian regime.” A sense of sacrum continued only in a very minimal way in the work, for example, of Jerzy Kalina, Włodzimierz Pawlak, and Robert Rumas.
Gralinska-Toborek writes that Bogucki:
“based his vision of contemporary culture on the distinction between three artistic attitudes: EZO, POP and SACRUM. EZO corresponded to the egocentric attitude of the avant-garde presented thus far, its attachment to the sacrum of art. POP was a new attitude, ‘a total secularisation of art, its incorporation into the scientific, technological and administrative mechanisms of civilisation and mass culture.’ The tendency within POP was for practicality and pragmatism, characteristic of the civilization of haste and success. The third attitude, in which Bogucki placed his hopes, was SACRUM, an attempt at rediscovering the relation between the sacrum of art and the primal sacrum, manifested in reflection on the timeless and non-material meaning of human existence … Art should, first of all, reconstruct the universality of meanings in its language, overcome the alienation of the artist through communal activity, and finally save from insanity or exhaustion those artists who seek spiritual metamorphosis on their own, without God and thus without any preparation. In order to attain this goal, artists were to give up the basic assumptions of modernism: egocentrism and the cult of individuality in favour of humility, group work, combining creation with spiritual experience, and going back to original sources, especially Christian ones, to deepen their faith. Bogucki’s conception came into existence around the time that the views of critics of modernism reached Poland. Those critics saw the modernist desacralization of life and art as the source of spiritual and moral crises and
cultural nihilism. Such a claim was made, for example, by Daniel Bell, who described the period of modernism as a process of rationalisation in the technological and economic spheres of life, secularisation in politics, and de-sacralization in culture. He believed that the contemporary man suspended in a spiritual void could only be saved through religious rebirth. This concept of postmodernism received a warm welcome in Poland, and was popularised by Bogucki, who held similar beliefs.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henryk Gorecki - Miserere.
Revd. Rod Pattenden, Chairperson of the Blake Society writes that:
“The Blake Prize is one of the more prestigious art prizes in Australia. Since 1951 the Blake Society has been awarding a prize for works of art that explore the subject of religious awareness and spirituality. In difference to art prizes that are awarded for distinct subject areas such as landscape or portraiture, the Blake has always invited a much more open, personal and idiosyncratic response, so much so that it has earned the criticism, ire and sometimes applause of critics and the public alike. After all, what is religious art?
First awarded in 1951 it has brought to the attention of the art world new and emerging artist as well as allowing for innovation and experimentation of expression. Senior artists like John Coburn, Eric Smith and Rod Milgate first came to attention through their winning entries for the Prize. In more recent years, the Blake has seen something of a revival of interest with increasing numbers of entries and a diversity of ideas being expressed in the works. Recent winners have included George Gittoes, Hilarie Mais and Rachel Ellis. The search for a visual means of expressing deeply held perceptions and beliefs is rewarded each year in an exhibition that begins its life in Sydney and then travels around Australia.”
Rosemary Crumlin is currently completing a book on the Blake Prize, Within, which covers the period from its beginning in 1950 to 2009; a period which has been of considerable significance in Australia. She writes that “its shifts and shaping have been influenced by perspectives and art movements beyond Australia.”
Pattenden notes that:
“The Prize was the brainchild of Richard Morley, a Jewish businessman, and Michael Scott, a Jesuit educationalist, who believed that such a Prize would provide contemporary works of art for the many new churches and synagogues being built in the post war suburban sprawl. While religious authorities were generally taken aback by the modern flavour of these new investigations, it was the artists who most welcomed the Blake as it allowed them to express more personal subject matter; in short, it rewarded innovation and daring. The Prize was named after the mystic artist and writer William Blake who is celebrated for his creative commitments rather than his adherence to any particular dogma.
Surprise is the more characteristic response to each year’s exhibition rather than a confirmation of any traditional iconography. In the search for fresh contemporary expressions of spirituality artists have continued to extend the envelope of the Blake to encompass a wide diversity of religious expression drawing on major religious traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism, as well as indigenous spirituality. The Blake has fostered this breadth of diversity and celebrated the various rich traditions that make up the landscape of belief in Australia.
More personal responses have also found their way into the Blake’s gamut with explorations of feminism and gender, connections with the natural world and the wider referencing of the political influences of war, ecology and globalisation. There is nothing the Blake doesn’t seem to cover even tolerating parody, irony and humour over against the usually serious face of organised religion. Each year there is much to be annoyed by, seduced by, or simply inspired by. It is a thoroughly ecumenical experience for the eyes!”
In 2002 Crumlin curated a retrospective of the Blake Prize. Her main purpose in the retrospective was to show, through the paintings, how society's views on spirituality had changed over half a century: "Initially, she says, "artists - and the Blake committee - took it for granted that 'religious' meant 'Christian' and that 'Christian' was to be equated with scriptural narratives". Today, artists and judges have a less restricted view of spirituality, encompassing not just other religions such as Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, but alternative faith systems, everything from "New Ageism" to Aboriginality."
Pattenden considers that:
“A Prize for Religious Art reminds us that the arts have a valuable role to play in a society as we explore the place of passion, love, belief and action. Learning to appreciate the diversity of belief allows more opportunity to act together with understanding and compassion. Art allows us to speculate on the mystery of life, while learning to appreciate the deeply held perceptions of people different to us without needing to agree with their ideas. Art has always had a close relationship to religious expression and exploration. It is a medium suited to exploring the many creative paths that people take on their life journey and honouring that diversity.”
The Prize is managed by the Blake Society, which is currently developing a Foundation to ensure the ongoing viability of the Prize. Its membership comes from a diverse range of professions and religious interests. The common goal of the Society is to affirm the ongoing and dynamic contribution of this cultural institution to Australian society and the arts.
By contrast to the positive embrace of the arts and religion that is seen in the Blake Prize, in Poland during the 1980’s, as martial law forced virtually the entire artistic community in Poland to boycott the official exhibition spaces, we see a similar embrace developing in response to this oppression, as the only other places which found widespread approval among independent artistic and intellectual groups were the churches. So, churches became where artistic meetings, shows and exhibitions were held with most significant Polish artists and art figures participating in them, and only a very few veering away from addressing religious themes.
Agnieska Gralinska-Toborek describes the first, and probably the most famous, of these exhibitions, which was organised in 1983 by Janusz Bogucki in the church of God's Mercy in Warsaw, as follows:
“Under the title The Sign of the Cross, it brought together over fifty artists and photographers, as well as actors, musicians, art theorists, and filmmakers, who took part in the meetings, lectures and concerts accompanying the exhibition. Popularising the idea of ‘art returning home’, i.e. coming back to the sacrum, [Janusz] Bogucki managed to convert to it many respected and important artists from the Polish avant-garde. The interior of the Gothic church, ruined during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and in the process of being laboriously rebuilt by the parishioners, played the function of an extraordinary gallery. Without interrupting the construction work, the artists used the space of the church and the vaults, including the elements of its architecture into their arrangements. They had to learn how to co-operate and talk with the parishioners, who felt themselves to be the owners of the place and were not always willing to accept the artists' ideas. It was a good preparation for further exhibitions organised by Bogucki, such as Apocalypse – The Light in the Darkness (1984) and Labyrinth – The Underground Space (1989).”
Janusz Bogucki (1916-1995), was an important Polish critic and art historian, who noted a tendency towards the spiritual in Polish avant-garde art which, in artists such as Jerzy Tchórzewski, Stefan Gierowski and Jerzy Bereś, arose from a need to achieve transcendence and was characterised by a search for the Absolute. The work of these and other artists was, for Bogucki, confirmation of his idea that art should turn to sacrum and he, therefore, invited them to take part in his church-based projects in the early 1980s.
Most significant Polish artists participated in these exhibitions, including the Gruppa artists. It was also in this period that the work of Jerzy Nowosielski revealed its full fascination with icon paintings through the publication of "Wokół ikony" / "Around the Icon" (1985) and later "Mój Chrystus" / "My Christ" (1993). Yet the spiritual expression was not, on the whole, extended into the next decade as, when the political turning-point came in 1989, the general adherence to links with the Church became, for many artists, “a good reason to break with it - and this was particularly true of radical circles - because it was regarded as a restraint not dissimilar to those imposed hitherto by the totalitarian regime.” A sense of sacrum continued only in a very minimal way in the work, for example, of Jerzy Kalina, Włodzimierz Pawlak, and Robert Rumas.
Gralinska-Toborek writes that Bogucki:
“based his vision of contemporary culture on the distinction between three artistic attitudes: EZO, POP and SACRUM. EZO corresponded to the egocentric attitude of the avant-garde presented thus far, its attachment to the sacrum of art. POP was a new attitude, ‘a total secularisation of art, its incorporation into the scientific, technological and administrative mechanisms of civilisation and mass culture.’ The tendency within POP was for practicality and pragmatism, characteristic of the civilization of haste and success. The third attitude, in which Bogucki placed his hopes, was SACRUM, an attempt at rediscovering the relation between the sacrum of art and the primal sacrum, manifested in reflection on the timeless and non-material meaning of human existence … Art should, first of all, reconstruct the universality of meanings in its language, overcome the alienation of the artist through communal activity, and finally save from insanity or exhaustion those artists who seek spiritual metamorphosis on their own, without God and thus without any preparation. In order to attain this goal, artists were to give up the basic assumptions of modernism: egocentrism and the cult of individuality in favour of humility, group work, combining creation with spiritual experience, and going back to original sources, especially Christian ones, to deepen their faith. Bogucki’s conception came into existence around the time that the views of critics of modernism reached Poland. Those critics saw the modernist desacralization of life and art as the source of spiritual and moral crises and
cultural nihilism. Such a claim was made, for example, by Daniel Bell, who described the period of modernism as a process of rationalisation in the technological and economic spheres of life, secularisation in politics, and de-sacralization in culture. He believed that the contemporary man suspended in a spiritual void could only be saved through religious rebirth. This concept of postmodernism received a warm welcome in Poland, and was popularised by Bogucki, who held similar beliefs.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henryk Gorecki - Miserere.
c4m webpage update (41)
There are three new items on the commission4mission webpage. The first is an update on member's current and upcoming activities, the second information about Sarah Ollerenshaw's involvement in Wimbledon Open Studios, and the third about Harvey Bradley's sponsored London to Paris tandem ride together with his wife Barbara.
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Lifehouse - Halfway Gone.
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Lifehouse - Halfway Gone.
Holy Rollers for Love
Here's an extract from ImageUpdate's review of Jakob Dylan's Women and Country:
"... With an eye on musical tradition and lyrics riffing on poets such as W.H. Auden and Stephen Crane, Dylan’s songs are literate. They’re also noticeably theological, as is evident again on his second solo effort, Women and Country ... On "Holy Rollers for Love," the album’s strongest indictment of war, the song’s narrator places the blame solely on humanity’s free will: "The devil himself would be puzzled to give / Any reasons for sinking his fingers in." The song ends with a twist: "Glory glory hallelujah be warned / God is still marching, still raising his sword." Given his subject matter, Dylan’s work remains hopeful. "I think He [God] wants us to have every opportunity available to achieve good things," he said in a recent NPR interview. "To have hope you’re going to have to imagine that there’s something behind the curtain." Women and Country is a beautiful and understated slow-grower. For listeners and critics duly attentive, its muted Americana facilitates contemplation and quiet reverie. Produced by T Bone Burnett, the album boasts a wealth of performers, including Marc Ribot (guitar), David Mansfield (fiddle), Jay Bellerose (drums), Dennis Crouch (acoustic bass), a brass section led by Darrell Leonard (trumpet), and the backing vocals of indie sirens, Neko Case and Kelly Hogan."
ImageUpdate also includes details of how to directly support the next Over The Rhine album as, rather than looking to a record company to front the money, Over the Rhine is appealing directly to the people who care about their music to help fund the project up front. For $15, you can help them "blow the seams out of the songs" with Joe Henry, and ensure that you’ll receive your copy of the resulting record a month in advance. To read more about the new record, click here; and if you’re sold on the project, click here to buy in.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jakob Dylan - Holy Rollers for Love.
"... With an eye on musical tradition and lyrics riffing on poets such as W.H. Auden and Stephen Crane, Dylan’s songs are literate. They’re also noticeably theological, as is evident again on his second solo effort, Women and Country ... On "Holy Rollers for Love," the album’s strongest indictment of war, the song’s narrator places the blame solely on humanity’s free will: "The devil himself would be puzzled to give / Any reasons for sinking his fingers in." The song ends with a twist: "Glory glory hallelujah be warned / God is still marching, still raising his sword." Given his subject matter, Dylan’s work remains hopeful. "I think He [God] wants us to have every opportunity available to achieve good things," he said in a recent NPR interview. "To have hope you’re going to have to imagine that there’s something behind the curtain." Women and Country is a beautiful and understated slow-grower. For listeners and critics duly attentive, its muted Americana facilitates contemplation and quiet reverie. Produced by T Bone Burnett, the album boasts a wealth of performers, including Marc Ribot (guitar), David Mansfield (fiddle), Jay Bellerose (drums), Dennis Crouch (acoustic bass), a brass section led by Darrell Leonard (trumpet), and the backing vocals of indie sirens, Neko Case and Kelly Hogan."
ImageUpdate also includes details of how to directly support the next Over The Rhine album as, rather than looking to a record company to front the money, Over the Rhine is appealing directly to the people who care about their music to help fund the project up front. For $15, you can help them "blow the seams out of the songs" with Joe Henry, and ensure that you’ll receive your copy of the resulting record a month in advance. To read more about the new record, click here; and if you’re sold on the project, click here to buy in.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jakob Dylan - Holy Rollers for Love.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
A night that reaffirmed democracy
The Contextual Theology Centre Blog has footage from Monday's assembly with the leaders of the three main parties. Most importantly, it lists the policy commitments which were won from each. These were backed up with a promise to attend future assemblies at which they will be held to their words.
The leaders of all the major party agreed...
- to be held to account by Citizens UK - in assemblies and round-table meetings - during the next Parliament
- a Community Land Trust on the Olympic Park after 2012 - caps on exploitative lending and a stronger mutual banking sector
- Labour committed to a Living Wage for Whitehall workers - something the Tories are also looking to fund
- Labour and the Tories committed to reviewing the practice of detaining children seeking sanctuary
- LibDems committed to ending child detention - and to a one-off earned amnesty for undocumented migrants.
Yesterday's Guardian included Patrick Wintour on the front page ('Battered PM finds his voice'); Allegra Stratton on p. 4 ('Brown triumphs in unofficial fourth leadership debate') and Marina Hyde on p. 5 ('Real people, excruciating stories and a bit of recycling'). The Telegraph had a sketch on p.8, emphasising the role of faith in the event - 'Son of the manse in his element among the righteous'. Online, there was good coverage from the Finanical Times and Reuters. More coverage has come in the Spectator ("Brown's best speech of the campaign") and Mirror (PM is "a signed up citizen") - while Michael White in the Guardian said this was a "night that reaffirmed democracy."
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Flyleaf - Fully Alive.
The leaders of all the major party agreed...
- to be held to account by Citizens UK - in assemblies and round-table meetings - during the next Parliament
- a Community Land Trust on the Olympic Park after 2012 - caps on exploitative lending and a stronger mutual banking sector
- Labour committed to a Living Wage for Whitehall workers - something the Tories are also looking to fund
- Labour and the Tories committed to reviewing the practice of detaining children seeking sanctuary
- LibDems committed to ending child detention - and to a one-off earned amnesty for undocumented migrants.
Yesterday's Guardian included Patrick Wintour on the front page ('Battered PM finds his voice'); Allegra Stratton on p. 4 ('Brown triumphs in unofficial fourth leadership debate') and Marina Hyde on p. 5 ('Real people, excruciating stories and a bit of recycling'). The Telegraph had a sketch on p.8, emphasising the role of faith in the event - 'Son of the manse in his element among the righteous'. Online, there was good coverage from the Finanical Times and Reuters. More coverage has come in the Spectator ("Brown's best speech of the campaign") and Mirror (PM is "a signed up citizen") - while Michael White in the Guardian said this was a "night that reaffirmed democracy."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flyleaf - Fully Alive.
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